The Debt Of Fate
Chapter 128: All too suspicious.

Chapter 128: All too suspicious.

After a day of searching for information about Miss Ashcombe, a few people reported seeing her at the shore, but she had left shortly after. The shore was a busy place. Since someone had seen her leaving, it meant two things: either she did not meet Anastasia and had to leave, or she did meet Anastasia and received some instructions.

The commander replied that Anastasia had not brought a new maid into the group. No one had met Miss Ashcombe within the group. This made General Robert feel that the missing piece was this missing lady. After thinking for a while, he decided to continue searching for Miss Ashcombe and sent a message to the palace.

When King George saw his report, he frowned. Of course, he remembered the name. The lady who had replaced Anastasia during the sacrifice had also given her name as Elfrida Ashcombe.

This meant Anastasia had met this lady on the morning of the accident. He found it strange that someone would be willing to give their life for another simply because she had been saved from being thrown into a pleasure house.

King George, having enjoyed wealth all his life, could not understand the depth of Elfrida’s gratitude.

"If that girl never boarded the ship, then the switch between Anastasia and Elfrida must have happened after the kidnapping," the king thought.

Elfrida had left the shore perhaps shortly after meeting Anastasia or perhaps the two had never met. Either way, after leaving the shore, no one had seen her again. It was possible she had been kidnapped by the same group the king had paid, but that didn’t make sense either.

The group wouldn’t kidnap a random person when dealing with Anastasia. Naturally, they would try their best to keep a low profile.

So how did the switch happen? Moreover, considering how quickly Elfrida was sent to the royal palace, it seemed these people hadn’t taken a break in Wiwell.

As King George thought about it, he began to believe that the least likely possibility might actually be the truth: Anastasia was unconscious, and the men had sought help since they needed to deliver her alive.

That brief stop to ensure her safety may have been the moment the two used to switch places.

"If they switched places, where is Anastasia now?" the king wondered.

He had also contacted the men involved, and after careful questioning, it was clear they hadn’t deliberately switched the princess. In fact, they had kept her face covered to avoid drawing attention.

It had been days since the incident. If the princess were safe, why hadn’t she contacted the queen?

Could she have fallen into the hands of other kidnappers? After all, Anastasia was beautiful, and the roads were not always safe. She could have escaped from his men only to fall into the hands of another group.

He immediately sent a message back to General Robert:

(Search every pleasure house and inn. Also, find out which caravans left Wiwell village within two days of the incident.)

When General Robert read the message, he understood what the king was thinking.

The missing girl might also have fallen into the hands of kidnappers and been taken to a pleasure house. It was also possible that the pleasure house wasn’t located in Wiwell. So, following the king’s orders, he didn’t just search the pleasure houses; he decided to search the entire village and investigate every carriage that left Wiwell within two days of the princess’s kidnapping.

During his investigation, he discovered that Steward Gray had sent a caravan to the north. This movement seemed suspicious, as caravans of that size were never sent in that direction. General Robert had always suspected that the steward wasn’t being entirely truthful, so he went to interrogate him again.

"General, someone contacted me to help move goods to the north. They offered a generous reward, and since the load wasn’t much, I offered the smallest caravan we had available for the journey," Steward Gray said. He knew he’d be walking a tightrope until General Robert left Wiwell.

He dared not mention Anastasia now. All he could do was maintain his lies.

"Do you know the identity of the client?" General Robert asked.

"General, I delivered the caravan myself. Normally, we don’t lend out our caravans, but seeing that the men seemed to be from the royal army, I made a decision on the spot. I was hoping that doing them a favor might bring me some benefit. Is there a problem with their identity?" Steward Gray asked.

Of course, he knew they were from the royal army since the lady was the princess but he had to feign doubt now that General Robert was asking. That way, even if the situation was later tied to the princess, he could continue to deny the truth.

General Robert studied him. His story was logical. After the attack the night before, some men had been injured and were unfit to travel by water. Some of the carriages had been damaged. The commander had decided to split the supplies and send a portion by road. His decision could be seen as a safety measure nothing wrong there.

But why hadn’t he reported it?

General Robert found this suspicious. Moreover, they hadn’t even used a royal caravan; they had used one belonging to a merchant. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

"Could the commander be a traitor?" That was now a real possibility. After all, the ship had been attacked unexpectedly, and the princess had disappeared. It was all too suspicious.

"Did you notice anything strange?" General Robert asked. The caravan had been heading north for eight days already, it was not something he could catch within a day.

"No..." Steward Gray shook his head. "But now that I think about it, I feel like one of the men I saw loading the caravan resembled the guard who was with the princess when I met her. I thought they just looked alike. After all, I didn’t see his face clearly at the time. Could something be wrong with the guard? He added after a short pause.

Steward Gray had been clever from a young age, so now that the caravan had been discovered, he made that statement to give himself an excuse. If it were later revealed that the princess had been involved with the caravan, he could claim ignorance.

When General Robert heard this reply, he felt certain that his assumptions were correct. There was something wrong with the commander. So he immediately sent another message to the palace.